Has any one tried or researched HIFU or CyberKnife for treating Prostate Cancer?

HIFUgal said:

Hi,My husband had HIFU a
Hi,
My husband had HIFU a year ago and we've sent in 9 friends to date, all of us are very happy with the outcome, no discomfort, no problems at all, one guy needed Cialis to help out for a while. But, zero incontinence even for a day. The secret seems to be in getting the most experienced doctor, as there's a learning curve, like anything, practice matters. glad to hear you've found others that are happy. I know that International HIFU has an office in Mumbai and somewhere else. I don't know of anyone who also had hormone treatment. It would only be used if the gland is over 40cc, or they give a TURP--to reduce the size. Or, if they are using the Ablatherm then a gland over 25cc would need to be reduced. We had the Sonablate, and I recommend it, a TURP or hormones sounds awful.


I've found, on the web, 3 guys who had HIFU 2 or more years out and are still fine, I also know 6 guys from the UK who had it 7 years ago and they are still low and stable PSA, no problems. And, i even know a guy who had HIFU with a PSA of 19. His PSA is now 0.1

We live in Aspen, Colorado, my husband & his friends are like you ~ unwilling to give up sports, they are mountain climbers & skiiers, they had HIFU by Dr. Scionti, in Mexcio. Dr. Scionti is the doctor who teaches HIFU around the world, he's been doing it for 5 or 6 years. He uses both machines but prefers the Sonablate which, I think, is the machine you use in India.

There's a doctor in Florida who has a Facebook page who says that someday surgery and radiation will be replaced by HIFU.

I've been told that Cyber Knife won't work for prostate cancer.

Much luck. I am happy to answer any questions. We are very happy with the decision to go HIFU, we researched it for quite a while.

HIFUgal said:

Hi,My husband had HIFU a
Hi,
My husband had HIFU a year ago and we've sent in 9 friends to date, all of us are very happy with the outcome, no discomfort, no problems at all, one guy needed Cialis to help out for a while. But, zero incontinence even for a day. The secret seems to be in getting the most experienced doctor, as there's a learning curve, like anything, practice matters. glad to hear you've found others that are happy. I know that International HIFU has an office in Mumbai and somewhere else. I don't know of anyone who also had hormone treatment. It would only be used if the gland is over 40cc, or they give a TURP--to reduce the size. Or, if they are using the Ablatherm then a gland over 25cc would need to be reduced. We had the Sonablate, and I recommend it, a TURP or hormones sounds awful.


I've found, on the web, 3 guys who had HIFU 2 or more years out and are still fine, I also know 6 guys from the UK who had it 7 years ago and they are still low and stable PSA, no problems. And, i even know a guy who had HIFU with a PSA of 19. His PSA is now 0.1

We live in Aspen, Colorado, my husband & his friends are like you ~ unwilling to give up sports, they are mountain climbers & skiiers, they had HIFU by Dr. Scionti, in Mexcio. Dr. Scionti is the doctor who teaches HIFU around the world, he's been doing it for 5 or 6 years. He uses both machines but prefers the Sonablate which, I think, is the machine you use in India.

There's a doctor in Florida who has a Facebook page who says that someday surgery and radiation will be replaced by HIFU.

I've been told that Cyber Knife won't work for prostate cancer.

Much luck. I am happy to answer any questions. We are very happy with the decision to go HIFU, we researched it for quite a while.

hopeful12 said:

HIFU for prostate cancer
Does anyone know where in Florida the clinical trials for HIFU is being done. Early in October I had found a link to this info. but have misplaced the contact. My PSA is rising and I need to have some sort of plan. From 4.7 to 6.3 with Gleason of score of 7. Only 52 tomorrow and I am very active. Thanks.

2x4don said:

my experience re: recent Davicci prostatectomy and research
I was diagnosed with early stage of prostate cancer on 9-1-09 on one side of my prostate, after trailing my psa, which had elevated from 2 about ten years ago, to 35 and having taken 5 biopsies over the years, having skipped having a biopsy on 08, as Dr. said I must
just have a psa "leak" and they would have found cancer with all the biopsies.

I met with a couple of other doctors whos did open prostatectomys, but the most enfluential advice I received was, a friend of the family who is a radiologist had chosen to have the davicci operation at the advice of his urologist friend, to be done at the Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville, Not a very good experience in comparison to my Davicci operation at the bathesda North hospital in Cinn. Ohio. I chose Dr Delworth in the area, because my son sells Laprascopic equipment and the supervisor in Cincinatti said Delworth was quite noted, having done about 750 davicci operations and he was only 80 miles from me, rather than 250 to Vanderbilt.

My Dr friend had considerable bleeding, etrocious diarhea and wasn't allowed to stay but one day, in a mash like atmosphere, having to stay in a motel a day or two in case there might be problems, wife had to sleep in a chair. In contrast, I was allowed to stay four days, due to my not passing gas or otherwise and they allowed my wife to sleep in the bed next to me, I was very happy with the care and accomodations.

I had no bleeding in my urine and the incisions have been so comfortable I kiddingly accused Dr Delworth of not removing the prostate.

I have had a small hemorriod and rectal soreness, but the stomach soreness went down fast over a week or two, but I was pretty mobile and walked at will. I'm six weeks post op and felling good except for:

My incontinese is of concern, but it seems to be improving a little daily, but I'm a bit frustrated, expecially as it gets worse the later in the day. I do pretty good lieing or sitting, but I leak worse when i stand. I get a bit irritated in the urethra in the penis when it seems to inhibit the penis utrethra too long, maybe an hour or so?

I havn't had an erection, but one ejaculation, emitting only "dust and smoke", but I havn't bought the vacuum pump yet, I tend to not be allowed to play with toys I may hurt myself with, but I think It may my permitted in about 6 to 8 weeks. I may be too preoccupied with piss to think beyond that?

I was fortunate to have a rediologist at Central Babtist Hospital in Lexinton, Ky, near my home spend two hours discussing the laser knife and other radiation treatments, and the end conclusion was that for my level of cancer about 7 whatever its called, I would be better off if removed surgically and if i might need radiation additionally, it could be done. But, if you do radiation first, you can't operate very well after radiation.

I suppose I could write a week on this ordeal, but I'll "zip it" for now, but would be glad to answer any questions.

ps.
I am 67 years old and in perfect health except i'm a type two diabetic with an a1c of 6.

HIFUgal said:

I am down in Mexico right
I am down in Mexico right now on vacation, in Puerto Vallarta where my husband had HIFU. I have learned that there are several doctors who treat men with prostate cancer here with HIFU, Mexican doctors. I met Dr. Garcia who learned from my husband's doctor, Dr. Scionti, Dr. Garcia is a wonderful man, you won't know you are "out of the country", and he only charges $12,000. Find him at HIFU + MX
HIFU is all over Mexico now, just like every country on earth ~ except the good ole USA (they call us The United Slaves of America).

HIFUgal said:

Have I been accused of
Have I been accused of "marketing"? Low blow, as I am just a wife of a guy who underwent HIFU, he had no pain, no problems, and I try to spend my free time letting people know that there is another option for PCa. All I want to do is help stop the misery caused by other treatments. HIFU is the future, but our for money system is not happy about this new treatment as it will severly reduce the profit and money in cancer. The rest of the world enjoys more freedom than we do.

My husband wasn't eligible for the clinical trials, and I am glad of that, because the clinical trials doctos don't have the experience that our doctor had, 6 years of HIFU treatments.

Here's a report on Sky News (a news channel the rest of the world gets, but not us):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zxH7P9WjIw

I didn't understand your FYI, what clinical trial were you looking at? I understand the Japanese have put out their results and 86% of HIFU patients were cured at 5 years, I keep the thought that that data is 10 years old, so they were just learning, I'm betting the data now is closer to what International HIFU sees, 94% cured. I'm guessing the 6% had cancer outside the gland area and it wasn't spotted.

HIFUgal said:

bdhilton,
I just wouldn't
bdhilton,
I just wouldn't discourage anyone from seeking advice from the HIFU doctor, as to whether or not HIFU will work for them. He won't treat anyone whom he doesn't think it will work for, Dr. Scionti has a 6 year spotless record he doesn't want to ruin and the FDA is following him around with tweasers.

Here's a story that International HIFU sent out in their monthly newsletter (by the way, it was not Dr. Scionti who treated him):

'During late June 2008, I had a PSA test locally in Palm Beach, Fl. As the PSA was high, I was referred to a local urologist who did a DRE and said that I should have radiation before even scheduling a biopsy.

During early July 2008, I researched HIFU extensively online, mainly using the Google search engine. I already knew that I had BPH so it was great timing to discover that a doctor in my area had both GreenLight and HIFU experience. I read everything I could find regarding both procedures and decided to contact this doctor, who answered most of my questions over the phone and via email.

I eventually met with this particular doctor in Orlando and he performed my biopsy on July 21, 2008. I learned within 22 hours that I had high-risk PC and BPH. My PSA was 18, Gleason score was 9 and all 12 of my cores were cancerous. He immediately prescribed oral Casodex for prostate cancer.

I had lost 20 pounds and was down to 140 pounds and was very concerned that radiation treatment would be especially hard on me as I have gastritis. I asked hundreds of questions, particularly regarding my concern if HIFU would be successful considering my high Gleason score. I was informed that they had treated previous high-risk patients who had high Gleason scores with the Sonablate 500. I decided in August to undergo the GreenLight laser procedure to reduce the size of my enlarged prostate and scheduled it for September 3. The GreenLight procedure was at 1:30 p.m. and I was in my motel at 5:00 p.m.

After discussing other options with local surgeons, oncologists and radiologists and undergoing nuclear pet-scans and MRIs, which showed no metastasis, I decided that I wanted to have the HIFU treatment in Cancun, Mexico. On September 14, just 11 days following the GreenLight procedure, I had my HIFU procedure in Cancun. I went into the OR at 6:30 a.m.; the total procedure time was approximately four hours and 10 minutes. I returned home to the U.S. 36 hours later; one of the patients returned home the day after his procedure.

I already had written instructions on how to train my bladder over the next few weeks, and was also assisted by multiple phone calls whenever I needed information.
I have been completely pain-free throughout both of these procedures (GreenLight and HIFU) with no side effects whatsoever and would highly recommend this treatment to anyone who chooses a minimally invasive treatment versus the recovery time and what seems to me to be the obvious suffering and pain involved in comparison to post-prostatectomy and/or radiation therapy. I have been on hormone therapy for more than 12 months. My PSA has remained at 0.1 (as of this writing on October 8, 2009).

I fully acknowledge and realize that there will be proponents and critics during the next months and years regarding the effectiveness of HIFU versus more invasive procedures, including surgery and radiation therapy. Knowing my overall health situation from the get-go gave me a determined conviction that I made the right decision for me.'


I've written him privately and he says his PSA is now 0.08, he has been off all hormones for a couple months.

HIFUgal said:

The person who invented
Randy in Indy,
The person who invented HIFU, in 1941, was a surgeon who said, "no man should have to suffer this" after he had surgery himself for PCa. He then invented the machine, he died and so did the technology.

The United States laughed at the DaVinci robot machine for roughly 10 years before they even went over to France and looked into it.

HIFU should be approved later this year, but I fear most men will still have to leave the country for treatment as it will be restricted in usage far more than it needs to be.

Yes, there has to be a reason.... The FDA is governed by radiologists and surgeons.


Mitch,
I am thrilled to have helped you, please keep us updated!